Miami Heat guard Ray Allen, who played the Shuttlesworth role in the 1998 movie “He Got Game,” says he and filmmaker Spike Lee have spent time over the last couple months discussing a sequel and are currently throwing ideas back and forth about the project.

“Sequels to most movies are always fluff and not as good as the first,” Allen said Tuesday night before the Heat played the New Orleans Pelicans. “But it’s something we’ve been talking about for the last couple months. If we get a really good story line and are able to bring everybody back, then it would be something worth doing.”

Lee posted a photo of himself and Allen to a social media account last summer, saying then that they were engaging in sequel talk. It wasn’t clear then how serious those conversations were.

Allen – who still gets called “Jesus” by teammates – said he’s committed to making it happen.

“Hopefully it works out,” said Allen, whose character in the film was a highly recruited high school basketball star. […] “We’ve got to get Denzel (Washington) and we’ve got to get Rosario (Dawson),” Allen said. “Obviously, it’s been 15 or 20 years, so there’s so many new story lines to talk about.”

Back in September, the NBA teased the idea of putting its stars in jerseys adorned with their nicknames. Spike Lee unveiled the joint Ray Allen will wear later on this season. Per the Sun-Sentinel: “Lee, of course, was the driving force behind 1998’s He Got Game, the movie that featured Allen as Jesus Shuttlesworth. For those who forget, Travis Best, Walter McCarty, John Wallace and Rick Fox were among other NBA players in the movie. The Heat will wear the NBA ‘Name Collection’ jerseys at home on Jan. 21 vs. Boston, March12 vs. Brooklyn and April 8 against Brooklyn.”

Filmmaker and NBA super-fan Spike Lee was in South Beach shooting footage prior to Game 7 of the NBA Finals last night. The Miami Heat wanted no part of Lee’s movie project. Sorry, Spike. Per the Palm Beach Post: “Lee was at AmericanAirlines Arena with a film crew to shoot a short version of his 1998 film ‘He Got Game,’ in which (Ray) Allen played, Jesus Shuttlesworth, the top ranked basketball prospect in the country. Lee was told by the Heat public relations staff that Allen does not speak at shoot-arounds. Lee than asked if Allen would make an exception and speak to him. Allen still refused. Lee then requested to speak to Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier and Mike Miller and was turned down by all three. Last summer Lee was asked about the Heat on MTV News. ‘I do not want the Heat to win back-to-back, hell no,’ he said.”

One day during the casting for He Got Game, Ray Allen, Travis Best and Rick Fox auditioned for director Spike Lee. Allen and Best were battling it out for the lead role in the film, Jesus Shuttlesworth; Fox, meanwhile, read for Chick Deagan, a cocky college star. The scene went really well. Suddenly, the room filled with applause. “Spike’s not clapping and the casting director isn’t clapping,” Fox says. “The clapping is coming from the closet. Denzel Washington then sticks his head out of the closet like, ‘That was really good.’ I’ll never forget thinking, ‘That’s Denzel Washington. Shit.’”

Spike Lee’s He Got Game arrived in theaters on May 1, 1998. It grossed only $21 million at the box office but remains one of the most beloved hoop movies of all time. Profound and entertaining, He Got Game is not your average sports film. Yes, there’s a “big game” during the third act, but like most Spike Lee joints, it explores grander themes—race, capitalism, college athletics, the prison industrial complex and fathers and sons.

The plot is a bit preposterous: A man imprisoned (Denzel Washington) for murdering his wife is given a week of freedom to convince his son (Ray Allen), the top high school player in the country, to sign with the governor’s alma mater. In return, he’s promised a reduced sentence. Yet it works. Lee tells the story from different vantage points, illustrating how everyone in Jesus’ world—the opportunistic uncle, the neighborhood tough, the slick-talking agent, the high school coach, the best friend, the girlfriend, the sister and especially the father—are affected by his decision on where he should go to college.

“I don’t think there was one aspect that wasn’t true,” Allen says. “If you ask any athlete about their stories, a lot of them would say it was like that when they got recruited to college….Your uncle buying a car and saying he co-signed it for you. People take liberties at your expense because they know you’re about to come into a lot of money.”

Of course, there’s also a lot of basketball in the film. And for those scenes, Lee wanted a real New York City playground vibe. Besides Allen, he hired other pros (Best, John Wallace and Walter McCarty), put them on the court and just rolled the cameras. He also wanted the cast to build camaraderie. Before filming, he had Washington, Allen and Hill Harper, who portrayed Allen’s best friend, play a game of knockout. They made a small wager on the outcome. “Obviously, Ray didn’t lose,” Harper says. “And I didn’t lose. Denzel took the L on that one. To this day, Denzel still owes me and Ray dinner.”